Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins' Erik Karlsson, Rickard Rakell help Team Sweden to a victory!

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

The opening day of the men's tournament was a wild one, and two Penguins helped their country to a victory! Patrick and Hunter begin the show discussing the near-upset of Team Sweden by Team Italy on the opening day of the men's Olympic tournament. They take a look at how Erik Karlsson and Rickard Rakell performed in Sweden's victory and how Italy's goaltending nearly stole the show. (0:00) Then, on Thursday, Sidney Crosby and Team Canada will take on Czechia. Team Latvia and possibly Penguins' goaltender Arturs Silovs will meet Team USA, as well. They preview both of those games as well as take a look back at the U.S. women's team dominating Team Canada. (11:26) Finally, just because the Penguins are on break doesn't mean Warrior Helmet Wednesday is! They hand out their MVP of the week to close out the show! (29:58) Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!QuoMake this the year where no opportunity — and no customer — slips away.Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go tohttp://Quo.com/lockedonnhl. FactorHead to http://factormeals.com/lockedonnhl50off and use code lockedonnhl50off to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year. IndeedNow, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to https://indeed.com/lockedon right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelThe Winter Games are on. And there’s no better way to follow them than with a bet on FanDuel. FanDuel - Play your game. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The men's Olympic hockey tournament is officially underway. Two penguins played today. At least one will play tomorrow. Hunter and I are going to talk about all of that, as well as hand out our MVP of the week in Warrior Helmet Wednesday right after this. You're locked on penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked on podcast network.

Your team every day. Welcome in to the Wednesday. edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4Wet. Joined as always by my partner in crime, the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's Twitter account a follow at L.O. underscore Penguins.

You can find us on Instagram at Lockedon underscore Penguins and TikTok at Lockedon. on penguins. Of course, as always, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget, we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube. Plus, if you follow us on YouTube, be sure you've turned on your notifications. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. This episode is sponsored by Fandul. The Winter Games are here, and there's no better way to get in on the action and follow them then with a bet on Fandul. FanDuel play your game.

More on our friends from Fandul later. And real quick, Hunter, before we jump into this episode, just a programming note for our viewers and listeners. The times of the episode, episodes over the next week and a half or so, they're going to be a little wonky with the winter games in Italy, with four penguins at the games. we want to make sure we're able to talk about those games. We want to make sure we're able to

recap them, preview them, get you well set up for them. So episodes are going to be a little bit later. Episodes might be even a little bit earlier depending upon the schedule. So as I said at the top, whether it's YouTube, your favorite podcasting app, wherever you listen to us, get those notifications on that way you know when we're going to drop our episodes. But as always, we appreciate you guys hanging with us talking a little bit of puck and let's just get it out of the way right off the rip Italy take a friggin bow man that was an awesome game it was ultimately a five to win for team Sweden both Carlson and Raquel record an assist each for team Sweden's victory but for 40 minutes man it was an upset special.

in the making by team Italy. And this was, I don't know if I would say it was a fun game to watch because Sweden was clearly the better team. But for quite a long time, Italy had the better goal. It was almost looking like a mini version of like miracle, Pat, which is the way that Italy's goaltender, Clara, he was just standing on his head shift after shift. And this is an Anaheim duck's prospect. the ducks are loaded in terms of goalies,

man, Lucas Dostal, he is also here. He's going to start for Czechia during this tournament. But don't forget about Clara, man. He was fantastic. And I'll admit, I didn't really know much about him when this game started. You know, you look at the Italy roster compared to the Sweden roster. Italy, Pat, no NHL games of experience. Sweden, it was over 16,000, if you look at that stat.

but for a while Italy was very much in this game and they had a chance to potentially, you know, win it going into the third period thanks to their goaltender. Yes, it was very obvious that Sweden was the better team. And even though this game was tied for a while and I know that Italy also opened the scoring, I still felt that Sweden's high-end talent was just going to prove to be too much. And you saw that later on in the second period, also into the third period. Willie Nealander gives them a three-two lead. Mika Zabedajad basically ends the game late in the third period of seeing eye shot after Clara got hurt,

had that insane save on Elias Pedersen, that's when I think he got hurt. But as for, you know, a pure penguin's perspective, really nice performance I thought from Eric Carlson. His skating was beautiful, as it has been throughout the season, had a couple of really nasty passes in the offensive zone, one in particular pat where he found really Nealander. Beautiful chance. Nealander just couldn't bury it even better.

saved by Clara. There was another pass later on that period, just showcasing his elite vision. I really liked his performance. And then Ricardo, Raquel gets an assist on Zabinajad's goal that makes it forward to. He also had a couple of a good scoring chances in this game. So all in all, Sweden, they deserved to win this game, even though Italy, again, take a bow for the way that they fought. They left it all out on the ice. And good job for Raquel and Carlson, two good performances from two of the Penguins in the Olympics. Yeah, I liked both of their games. They obviously both ended up dash one, but in a small tournament like the Olympics, I'm not going to take a lot of stock into plus minus, especially in a game like today's against Italy, where Sweden carried

the play for the vast majority of the game. Oh, yeah. We just got a otherworldly goaltending performance in total 55 saves combined from Italy's goalies with Sweden getting 60. I'm a lot of. I am not messing that up, 60 shots on goal. They basically tripled them up in shots. For one time, Pat, I think it ended around 60 to 22. This was 60 to 20 going into the final couple of minutes in the third. It was total domination. And if Clara hadn't been God, this probably is what a 7-1 loss for Italy 7-2, something like that.

And I will say this as a whole, both for the men's and women's tournaments, Italy being the host country. normally in these games when they're not, say, somewhere more hockey oriented. You know, when you talk about your Beijing's, your Koreas, now your Italy's, the host team, it's a cute story. Hey, they're there because they get the automatic bid because it's in their home country, but they're going to be a doormat. Hasn't been the case so far in both tournaments. Italy on the women's side, I don't know if they're going to end up anywhere big,

but they have played pretty well and above their heads. Obviously, Italy's performance on the men's side today, they were not really in this game. They were lucky to have really good goaltending and the fact that Sweden's goaltending was not very good, at least to start the game. But it's really encouraging to see as a whole, both men and women's side,

that some of these countries that you don't often think about as being hockey countries are showing up and putting up legitimate efforts. They're not just a game for the big countries to show up, get their cookies, and call it a day. How about in the earlier game? I mean, Slovakia just gave it to Finland, especially in that first period, really fun upset on the first day of the men's tournament. I thought Finland was going to win that game by a goal or two.

And I felt like Finland was the better team for the majority of it. but Slovakia's goalie also, Pat, he's still on his head for a good chunk of that game. And I felt like in the third period, Slovakia started to play a bit better overall. And you're a Slavkovsky, man, take a bow. He was tremendous for Slovakia today. And he's been great on an international stage overall for his home country over the last few years. Remember, Pat, as a 17-year-old a few years ago, he lit it up at the Olympics. This is his bread and butter.

So great performance from him, great performance from the Slovakia goaltender. I still think Finland overall is going to be okay. And I think they're going to get to the quarterfinals overall. But as a whole, two outstanding games to start the men's tournament today. And can we please never go 12 more years without NHL players at the Olympics? Because, man, that was a lot of fun to watch. It really was.

It has been, only having two games on the opening day for the men's tournament. This was a really fun day of hockey. And the thing I will say, and I don't want to be the skunk at the garden party here, but I do think after we get past tomorrow, this tournament's going to level out a little bit. I think by the end of tomorrow, every team is going to have played. And it will be, well, maybe not every team, but most of the teams are going to have played in that initial adrenaline rush and excitement of we're back, we're at the Olympics, is going to fade a little bit. You could see the energy in both games today that this was a group of, especially the teams that

had NHLers on the roster were just going on pure emotion. They were so excited to be back. They were so excited to be playing for their countries on the highest level. And we deserve that. We really do. I know that everybody loves the romanticism of, oh, it's amateur. It's not the pros. Brother, I want to watch the best in the world go up against the best in the world on the biggest stage.

Okay. I get it. I know the romanticism, but dude, we got to see the best going up against the best. And guess what? Tomorrow, the two favorites of the tournament begin their journey in Milan. Hunter and I are going to get you set for team Canada, team USA, and team Latvia right out. after this. Before we do that, though, we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor, and that is Fandul. The winter games are officially here, and if you're anything like us,

you're locking in for events you only get to see on the biggest stage every four years. And that's why following the winter games on Fandul just makes sense. From metal counts to individual events, to finding your angle on the sports you care about the most, Fandul gives you more ways to stay connected to the action. The drama of curling matches that start slow and somehow get intense, speed skating races that are decided by inches, and of course, hockey games that just hit different because it's the Olympics. Fandul keeps the entire Olympic experience engaging from start to finish.

The winter games are on, and there is no better way to follow them than with Fandul. Fandul play your game. Back here on the Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast, I am Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes. The main events for us here in North America are kicking off tomorrow when in the morning, we've got Canada versus Czechia, and then in the afternoon, we've got the United States versus Latvia. Let's start Hunter with Canada versus Chequia.

Captain Canada, Penguins captain, Sidney Crosby, is going to begin his journey for his third Olympic gold medal. And this is going to be a tough test for Team Canada right out of the gate. Yeah, Pat, Chequia is not going to be a walk in the park for Canada. And especially coming off today's games where Soakia, they upset Finland. And, you know, Finland coming in, that's a strong contender. to at least win runs, you know, maybe make a deeper run and win silver. I don't think I have them as a team to win gold.

I would feel more comfortable about Finland winning gold with Sasha Barkov there, but that is still, in my opinion, at least the fourth best team at the tournament. And then today with Italy, I know they didn't win, but they left it all out on the ice. And they made things really tough for Sweden in that game, especially again, due to Clara's performance and net. With Cheki, this is going to be fun. And Lucas Dostal is set to start for them. He's been damn good for Anaheim this year.

I would not want to face him just in one game at all. I mean, we've seen the way that he can play throughout his career so far. He's really good. That top line for Chequia is also strong with Marty Naches, Thomas Hurtle, and David Posternock. Really looking forward to that top line. I know that they're going to get the top line of Canada. Probably they're going to match up McDavid against them. I also wouldn't be surprised if you see Stone and Marner with Sid get some matchup.

against that top line, but you also have Andre Palat, you know, Servenka, who, you know, Parker on our Tuesday episode, Pat, he really shouted him out on that Chequette team. So that's someone that I really want to watch a bit more just because, you know, heading into this tournament, I don't really know much about him. So I'm curious to see how he plays. Again, this is not a walk in the park, especially with that top line for Chequia and Lucas Dostal Trevenka. But Candace should still win this game.

They are better at forward. they're better defensively. And, you know, if they start Logan Thompson, which they might, I think they're going to be just fine. Really curious to see if John Cooper tinkers with some things in this game. As of right now, again, Crosby set to start with Mark Stone and Mitch Marner. I like that. There's two defensively responsible wingers on Crosby line that can also put the puck in the back of the net whenever. But I'm curious to see if Cooper, you know, messes around a little bit.

say if, you know, this is a 4-0 game, something like that. You know, I'm not sure he's going to stay on that line throughout the entire tournament with Stone and Marner. But, you know, we all know how Sid shows up for Team Canada in every single international competition, whether it's the World Cup, the Olympics, the four nations, the world championships, take your pick, man. So I will take Canada to win this one. And I think Sid is going to have a good game.

But don't be surprised if this is also like today's games, Pat, a really tough game. You hit on something that I think is very important for Chequia. It's the fact that they have really good top end talent and they've got really, really good goal tending. And that is a mixture for a team in a tournament like the Olympics to make a little bit of noise in a short two-week tournament where you're only playing a handful of games. If your goaltending gets hot and your high-end talent produce as well, you have a

as good a shot as anybody else. And that describes Chequia to a T. The other thing that I think goes unnoticed, and we kind of talked about this on our episode yesterday, but we didn't really dive too deep into it, is the difference of styles that European and Eastern block teams play when they are on international play and international tournaments. If they get a lead, when we think of teams that go into show. shells in the NHL.

It's your neutral zone traps. It's your defensive one four, your one three ones and things like that. In Europe, it's a bit different to where essentially the neutral zone becomes a weird

amalgamation of the offensive zone and the defensive zone where they can test pucks from the red line in. They will attack you from the red line in. And if Czechia is a team that can get an early lead, get some saves from Doe Stow or whoever

they else they put in net, that could prove a little bit challenging for Canada because the Canadian team is an all-NHL roster with an NHL coach. Right. So that difference in style could really prove to be a challenge. Now, at the end of the day, I'm still right there with you in the fact that I think

the deeper roster, the talent disparity is going to work in Canada's favor, but at the end of the day, I don't think it's going to exactly be a cake walk for Canada. They are going to have to go out and prove that they are probably one of, if not the best team in the tournament. On the other side of it, the United States, they kick off their quest for their first gold since the 1980 Miracle on Ice against Team Latvia, the ultimate international thorn in the side. We don't know yet. if Artur Shilovs or Elvis Mers-Leakins will be in the net. But either way, much like we were saying about Czechia,

this is a team that plays a really good team-focused game, and they've got good goaltending. And at every international tournament for the last decade or so, they are the team that everybody goes, who is Latvia and why are they constantly in the mix? So much like Canada, this is not going to, to be an easy out for the Americans. Yeah, Latvia is a very scrappy team. You see it on a lot of international competitions, whether it's the World Championships, the Olympics. And you know,

you and I talked about this with Parker on Tuesday for our special guest. When they played Canada back in 2014, you know, they were in that game the entire time the Latvia goaltender was standing on his head, but them as a team, they left it all out on the ice. Canada was by far the better team, but that was still a really tough game. And while I do think that Team USA's group is easier than Canada's group, still, don't be surprised if, you know, this is still a tough game, like you saw today with Team Sweden against Italy and potentially tomorrow, you know, with Cheki against Canada, Latvia, they do have some NHL talent up front, but I still think they might have to try to turn this game into a little bit of a slog if they want to win this game.

obviously whoever starts merzleekins or she loves is going to have to you know make a lot of ten bell saves just because the u.s roster top to bottom is flat out better on paper it's an all n hl roster the four group is the deepest we've seen in quite some time defensively even without adam fox the defense is great and i assume that connor hellebuck is going to start a net and yeah i understand that he's had a little bit of a down here this year there's not many goalies i'm taking over Connor Hellebuck in a game in. Like he's, when he's on, one of the best goaltenders on the planet. So again, I think Latvia, if they're fully on, they can make life difficult,

but I'm still going to take Team USA to win this game. We just have to see, does Sheila start? Again, in my opinion, I think he should, but I, that's me. I have a microphone. I am not the Latvia head coach. So we'll see. They have two good options. And this is also kind of an overarching,

point that I like to point to when it comes to these tournaments, especially for your top tier teams, your United States, Canada, Sweden, Finland. There are obviously always some concerns about the goaltenders, especially when they are NHL goaltenders that, oh, you know, he's not having this grade of a year. He's kind of struggling here and there. These guys don't play for these kind of teams when they're, in the NHL. I understand the concern that Canadians have for Jordan Bennington. It's totally justified,

but you're putting him in front of an all-world team, or you're behind an all-world team, I should say. And the same goes for the United States. I know Connor Hellebuck has had his struggles in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but if you look at the reasons for why the United States came up short in the four nations face off, Connor Hellebuck pretty far down the list. He played pretty well, things considered and he had a great team in front of them. I look at that the same way for every top tier team in the Olympics. So I get the, uh, I get the concern when you look at some of the goaltenders, but you look at the teams in front of them, they're going to have a little bit of an easier time, especially whether it's Jordan Bennington, whether it's Connor Hellebuck,

whomever is going to start for the US or Canada. It's going to be a bit of an easier lift for them with the teams in front of them. The big X factor for me for Team USA, not just tomorrow, but overall in this tournament, Tage Thompson is at the tournament. Snubbed from the Four Nations, he has been one of the better forwards in the National Hockey League and a big reason that the Buffalo Sabres are where they are.

If they can unleash Tage Thompson and he plays that way, it really will give the United States a huge boost. Yeah, I love the making sense. that third line, Thompson with Larkin and Kyle Conner, you have two pure snipers on that line. And Larkin can score himself too, but I also really like him as a pure playmaker overall. That could be their best line of the tournament, if we're being completely honest. I really like that top nine. And Pat, you and I were discussing this before the start of the show.

As everyone knows, I am not high on JT. Miller and Vince Trochek being here. I feel like every time I tweet about it, a tweet goes viral on Twitter, which is just annoying because a bunch of Randos just coming on my mentions. They're like, well, you know, you need these guys to check and P.K. And it's just like, okay, you know, whatever. But I just don't like Jack Hughes kind of being stapled to them down there. I like Brock Nelson on that line, though, Pat, because I think Nelson, last year, I had more of an issue of him being there because he wasn't that good.

This year on Colorado, Brock Nelson has been legitimately good offensively, and he's been good defensively, and he's been playing well on the PK. So I have really no problem with Nelson being your 4C right now. It's just that, you know, they're probably going to dress 13 forwards. I really don't think you need both Trocheck and Miller. I prefer Clayton Keller to be there. But you did make a good point. You can kind of tinker a little bit and then put Clayton Keller in throughout some of these later games.

But he's got to be there for when the games really matter. Like that's a pure sniper. And we've seen the U.S. come up a goal short so many times. I'm going with a guy that has a better threat of scoring goals than someone like Miller or Trocheck. Right. And we talked about this when we previews. the Olympics earlier this week. You look at the three groups in the men's tournament. The United States is in probably the weakest group. Yes. Them, Germany, Latvia, in Denmark.

If you want to get Miller and Trocheck some playing time at the Olympics, whether you're Mike Sullivan, the management staff, whomever, as almost a lifetime achievement award kind of deal where we haven't had NHLers at the Olympics in 12 years. And there are plenty of players in that time. who should have been Olympians that were not. And probably today in 2026, as we have talked about, our fringe Olympians or shouldn't be Olympians. If you want to get them in against Denmark, Latvia, even Germany, totally cool with that. I appreciate that level of thought process. But when the rubber hits the road and you get to the playoff round, you've got to ice your best players. and just tell those guys, listen, you were part of it.

When we win, the gold is not going to be any less gold if we get it. You will still be a gold medal winner. So huge couple of games tomorrow. And before we end this segment, I would be doing our listeners a complete disservice. If we don't talk about for just a little bit, the absolute an utter domination on Tuesday of Team USA over Team Canada. A 5-0-0 win over Canada. And here's my favorite fact from that game.

That is the first time since women's hockey has been put into the Winter Olympics that Team Canada has ever been shut out. That's crazy. And you saw it on display. The U.S. was so much more faster. than Canada, and I think a big part of that, look at how much youth the U.S. women's team brought to this tournament. Canada was like, hey, we're going to bring back a lot of our vets.

And I get that just because just with how much history they've had with this event at the Olympics. But I don't think they brought enough youth. And the U.S. was just skating circles around them on the ice. Yeah, I still think these two teams are going to meet for the gold medal. And I assume that Marie-Philippe Houlan is going to be back. But I still think the U.S. US, even with her back pat, I think they're just going to skate circles around Canada and the

gold medal game. I think the US, I hope I don't get old takes exposed here, but I think they are a heavy favorite going into that game. Carpenter was once again, fantastic. I thought Keller had a great game as well. You saw some of the players talking some crap after some goals. I absolutely loved it. But, you know, this rivalry as of late, you go back to the rivalry series, a couple other things. it's been starting to really go towards the U.S. and they'll have a chance to really cement that here, Pat, with a gold medal. Because they've just been dominating. They've also outscored their opponents in the group stage, 20 to 1, heading into the

quarterfinals. They are kicking everyone's ass right now. It was an unbelievably complete performance from Team USA. And to your point, the average age for the team Canada women's team is around 30 years old. The average age for the United States. States team is 26. Yep. And this was the mistake that Team USA had made over the past couple of international tournaments, not the rivalry series. Obviously, the United States dominated the rivalry series, but world championships, other international tournaments. They did what Canada has done this

tournament. They leaned way too heavily on the veterans, did not let their talented youngsters play and you could see the difference. You saw that difference on Tuesday in that game. The U.S., like you said, they were a step and a half faster. They were hungrier. They were more aggressive. And I know that Marie-Philippe Poulin was not in the lineup. I don't think MPP is saving that team in that game yesterday.

Hell of a player. Maybe the goat of women's hockey. but even her with how dominant the U.S. was yesterday. It might have made it a closer game on the scoreboard, but overall that was a dominant, complete 60-minute game from the United States. And I'm with you, man, the U.S. on the women's side, to me, the heavy, heavy favorites to take home gold. But that is going to do it for this segment, for Olympic talk.

We are going to talk specifically penguins because guess what? just because the penguins are on pause and the Olympics are going. Doesn't mean we're straying away from our favorite segment, Warrior Helmet Wednesday, where we hand out our MVP of the week for the Pittsburgh Penguins. We will do that when we get back right after this. We've got one more sponsor to get to before we do that, though, and that is Quo.

New Year, new systems. This is the time when a lot of us take a look at the messier parts of how we run our businesses, and we think there just has to be a better way. And guess what? There is. Streamlining your communications is one of the quickest upgrades that you can make. That's why today's episode is brought to you by Quo spelled QUO, the smarter way to run your business communications. Because when your team is reachable, organized and communicating all in one place, you're not just working cleaner, you're creating more opportunities to connect with customers. I'm a big fan of Quo Kuo makes everything so very simple.

your whole team can call and text from one shared business number, so nothing gets lost. It's 2026. Our phones are all telling us potential spam. We're not answering the numbers we don't know. So, Quo, it takes that problem right out of the equation. So everything's working clean. It works right from your phone or your computer, and you can even keep your existing number. Just like I said, those saved numbers, they come up clutch. So it's no surprise that Quo is the number one rated business phone. system on G2, trusted by more than 90,000 businesses from solo operators to growing teams. So make this year the year where no opportunity and no customer slips away. Try quo for free plus get 20% off your first six months when you go to quo.com slash

locked on NHL. That's QUO.com slash locked on NHL. Quo, no missed calls, no missed customers. Wrapping up the Wednesday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes. And it's one of our favorite segments. We love doing Warrior Helmet Wednesday. If you are new here,

Warrior Helmet Wednesday is our weekly MVP award for the Pittsburgh Penguins. And it's paying homage to the 2016 Stanley Cup winning Penguins where during that season and all the way through their playoff run, they gave their player the game after victories, a warrior helmet in the locker room. So that's us having a little bit of fun with it. Hunter, there was but one penguin game played in the last week, a win over the Buffalo Sabres.

And I got a feeling you and I and our audience know who is going to get this week's warrior helmet. Yes, I'm going Avery Hayes, outstanding NHL debut, two goals, including one on his first shot in the first period of his first NHL game. What a move that he had, just knifing right around two Sabres defenders and then just firing that piss missile past Alex Lyon. The second goal later on in that period, great pass by Anthony Mantha and then Avery Hayes just does an absolute roof job past Alex Lion to make it a two one lead for the Penguins. His speed was noticeable throughout. He saw his wicked release.

Again, both of those were very much on display throughout training camp, throughout the preseason. And to me, those were two of the biggest reasons why I felt he was this close to making the NHL team out of training camp and why he is going to be a full-time NHL player really soon. And then after that, Pat, gets sent back down, gets a hat trick in his first game back to Wilkespeer. Yeah, I know the H.L All-Star break is going on right now. We discussed his hat-trick earlier this week. But what a week for him, man. And he was also miced up during that game. If it wasn't for Avery Hayes having that insane debut, my husband.

helmet was going to go to Ben Kindle because he has been red hot as of late. And if he keeps this up, once we get the Olympic break out of the way, he's going to have at least one, if not two more before the end of the season. Ben Kindle has definitely been due. So it was between Kindle and Hayes. I went Hayes because of his debut, though I easily could have given it to Ben Kendall too. Well, if you're watching us here on YouTube, you see the graphic up on your screen. So spoiler, I also am taking Avery Hayes for this week's Warrior Helmet.

Wednesday award. And what Hunter just said shows that we have done this show together for far too long, because we both had the same thought process for this week's Warrior Helmet. If it wasn't for such a great story of Avery Hayes making his NHL debut, scoring on his first shot in his first period in the NHL, I too would have gone with Ben Kindle because there is a legitimate argument to be made. that for the last couple of weeks, when the penguins have been in action, Ben Kindle has maybe been their best player, not just having a really good couple of weeks for a rookie.

He has arguably been the penguin's best player. Yeah, he's due for one of these. He really is, but you just, you got to love the story of Avery Hayes. Gets called up at the last minute because of injuries and illness. He doesn't know if he's going to play. he's got a drive from Wilkes-Bair to Buffalo to get ready for a game, gets in the lineup, scores in his first game, adds a second. And you brought this up.

I know that this isn't him being a psychic. This isn't him doing the Mark Messier, we're going to win game seven. But he was miced up and he said to McRourty in the locker room, if I get a look, I'm scoring. And sure enough, the first look he gets, he buries it. And it was just an all-around great game for him.

It's been a great week for him. I don't know if or when he's going to be back just because of how good this roster has been. But he has certainly made the decision for Kyle Dubas and Dan Mews really, really difficult. So let's take a look if you're checking us out on YouTube at our Warrior Helmet Wednesday tracker for the season. Leading the pack this year with four Warrior Helmet Awards is the captain, Sidney Crosby as well as of Gennie Malkin.

Justin Brzo sits alone with three Warrior Helmets on the year, quite a few players and coaches and whatnot with two. Kyle Dubus, Ben Kindle, Eric Carlson, Anthony Mantha, Dan Mews, and Sergey Murshov, each with two. And joining the list of people with one Warrior helmet on this season. Connor Dewar, Avery Hayes, the special teams units, Archer Sheelovs, and Stuart Skinner. So we're keeping track of that this year because at the end of the season,

we'll do some locked on penguins end of year awards, including our season long warrior helmet. But we hope that's after some playoff games, maybe after a Stanley Cup. Who knows? We got quite a ways away to go before that. But unless Hunter, you've got anything left to add. Thank you as always for tuning in to the locked on penguins podcast. As I said off the top,

Hunter and I will be back tomorrow, but it will be a little bit later of an episode as we are going to want to recap these games and preview the rest of the Winter Olympic Games. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you as always for tuning in. And we will talk to you on Thursday.